Volunteering at Brazen's Bear Creek

 Behold, the beautiful Brazen arch!  We headed to the start nice and early and were checked in and ready to head out to where the aid station would be at 6 a.m.  I should mention that not only did we get shirts, all the volunteers also had their choice of home made sandwiches, which were really good!

 You'll see this picture again later, but this is what the pile looks like when you get there, minus those garbage bags.  There's just a pile of what will become "your station".  If you are at one of the far aid stations, you can usually get a ride, but we were only a mile out from the finish, so we hiked in to our spot.  The stuff had been delivered the night before.

 After about 30 minutes, we had transformed that pile of stuff into an aid station!

 You may notice the signs, we were at a spot where the 5k, 10k, and 13.1ers joined back up together after being on different trails, and then headed off on the same trail together. It got a bit hectic when we had people coming at us from two different trails.

 That was the ice bucket. I got to give  a few people an icy sponge bath.

 
This was our crew!  Our family of 5, plus Gene.  He was a complete newbie, has never ran a race of any kind or volunteered.  He did great though!  He had the hardest job of the day, keeping those water and Ultima cups full!

 

 We were out there for about 5 hours.  We could see the 10k/13.1ers coming down a steep hill before they got to us.   The last runner was moving super slow with a gimpy stride, and then she sort of stumbled.  She looked to be in a lot of pain, so Brian ran out to meet her.  She was in tears thinking she was getting pulled for being over the time limit. Thankfully, we did not know of any time limit, so she was not getting pulled.  Brian offered to run in the last mile with her, but she was determined to get it done on her own. She was having IT band issues and could hardly bend her knee...which makes me wonder how she made it as far as she had, and how she was going to get down/up the stairs near the finish.  But, we know she did indeed finish because Jasmine said everyone finished.

 After the last runner came through, and then the folks from a different aid station came through, we broke down the station.   Emma ran back with Gene while Brian and I finished up.  Then it was time to run back to the finish on the beautiful singe track of Bear Creek Trail.

 

It was a great morning of volunteering.  It is work, and we were all wiped when we got home, but it is so much fun!  I love seeing all the runners come through, seeing all the happy faces and sweat and sometimes tears.  Plus, Sam and Jasmine make it more than worth it with those free race entries!
Decisions, decisions.....Trail Hog or Drag-N-Fly???